How to install a package built with cygport on Cygwin (so I can uninstall it later)? - cygwin

Question

I have built a package from https://github.com/fd00/yacp using cygport; however I just noticed that cygport [packagename.cygport] install command does NOT install in the cygwin filesystem, but in a subdirectory of the source build directory; as such, executables are not in the cygwin path, and you cannot call them by name.
I have seen:
http://cygwin.1069669.n5.nabble.com/Manual-installation-of-cygport-packages-td132812.html
So for most cases, it works just fine just to unpack the archive into the
root file system in order to test it.
https://cygwin-ports-general.narkive.com/RrfmRgr6/how-to-install-a-package-build-with-cygport
you could install yourself or by descending to the build directory and doing 'make
install' or simply run it from the build directory :-)
So, now I have packagename.tar.xz and packaganame.hint - can't I use these with the Cygwin setup-x86_64.exe program (so that I'd have a marked entry, when I look up the package name in setup)?
If I "install" by just unpacking packagename.tar.xz into the Cygwin root filesystem, how do I "uninstall" then?
Does cygport change installation paths in respect to make install of the package? If not, then I guess make install is an option, because then I should have make uninstall too ...

Answer 1

cygport is the tool to build packages that can be installed with Cygwin setup-$ARCH.exe installation.
You can create a local setup structure, and use the calm package to create
the needed setup.ini file.
$ cygcheck -f /usr/bin/mksetupini
calm-20200220-1
Create a website directory similar to the cache you have from downloading, make a ARCH/release directory and copy the content of dist for the packages you are interested.
I am using a script like this to prepare the directory for setup
#!/bin/bash
cd /pub/altervista/
rm x86/setup.ini x86_64/setup.ini
for i in x86 x86_64
do
mksetupini --arch ${i} --inifile=${i}/setup.ini --releasearea=. --disable-check=missing-required-package,missing-depended-package
bzip2 <${i}/setup.ini >${i}/setup.bz2
xz -6e <${i}/setup.ini >${i}/setup.xz
done
In this moment its structure is like this:
$ cd http%3a%2f%2fmatzeri.altervista.org%2f
$ find x86_64/ -type f
x86_64/release/perl-Cairo/perl-Cairo-1.107-1-src.tar.xz
x86_64/release/perl-Cairo/perl-Cairo-1.107-1.hint
x86_64/release/perl-Cairo/perl-Cairo-1.107-1.tar.xz
x86_64/release/perl-Cairo/perl-Cairo-debuginfo/perl-Cairo-debuginfo-1.107-1.hint
x86_64/release/perl-Cairo/perl-Cairo-debuginfo/perl-Cairo-debuginfo-1.107-1.tar.xz
x86_64/release/perl-Glib/perl-Glib-1.3292-1-src.tar.xz
x86_64/release/perl-Glib/perl-Glib-1.3292-1.hint
x86_64/release/perl-Glib/perl-Glib-1.3292-1.tar.xz
x86_64/release/perl-Glib/perl-Glib-debuginfo
x86_64/release/perl-Glib/perl-Glib-debuginfo/perl-Glib-debuginfo-1.3292-1.hint
x86_64/release/perl-Glib/perl-Glib-debuginfo/perl-Glib-debuginfo-1.3292-1.tar.xz
x86_64/setup.bz2
x86_64/setup.ini
x86_64/setup.xz
than you can just install from that Website local directory. A fake Website works fine.

Answer 2

Ok, found and followed the instructions here: https://cygwin.com/package-server.html
First install calm via Cygwin's setup.exe (for me, setup-x86_64.exe):
Install calm 20200220-1
Install python36-setuptools 41.2.0-1 (automatically added)
Then, I have:
$ which mksetupini
/usr/bin/mksetupini
Note, I have already: /cygdrive/d/Downloads/cygwin_packages/http%3a%2f%2fcygwin.mirror.constant.com%2f/x86_64 where Cygwin stores downloaded packages; that directory has release subdir and setup.ini file.
So, now I can create a directory for my custom packages:
$ mkdir /cygdrive/d/Downloads/cygwin_packages/cygwin-custom
$ mkdir -p /cygdrive/d/Downloads/cygwin_packages/cygwin-custom/x86_64/release
Note that in my source build folder, I have a dist subfolder, which contains the packaging:
$ ls -la [packagename]-[version]-1bl1.x86_64/dist/[packagename]/
total 2557
drwxr-xr-x 1 user None 0 Mar 21 18:26 .
drwxr-xr-x 1 user None 0 Mar 21 18:26 ..
-rw-r--r-- 1 user None 373 Mar 21 18:26 [packagename]-[version]-1bl1.hint
-rw-r--r-- 1 user None 177772 Mar 21 18:26 [packagename]-[version]-1bl1.tar.xz
-rw-r--r-- 1 user None 2430900 Mar 21 18:26 [packagename]-[version]-1bl1-src.tar.xz
drwxr-xr-x 1 user None 0 Mar 21 18:26 [packagename]-debuginfo
drwxr-xr-x 1 user None 0 Mar 21 18:26 lib[packagename]0
drwxr-xr-x 1 user None 0 Mar 21 18:26 lib[packagename]-devel
I can just copy this to the arch/release child dir of cygwin-custom, and then change directory to cygwin-custom:
$ cp -a [packagename]-[version]-1bl1.x86_64/dist/[packagename] /cygdrive/d/Downloads/cygwin_packages/cygwin-custom/x86_64/release/
$ pushd /cygdrive/d/Downloads/cygwin_packages/cygwin-custom
Now, note that if I just call mksetupini as in the above webpage, it will fail:
$ mksetupini --arch x86_64 --inifile=x86_64/setup.ini --releasearea=.
mksetupini: package '[packagename]' version '[version]-1bl1' requires nonexistent or errored package 'cygwin'
mksetupini: package '[packagename]' version '[version]-1bl1' requires nonexistent or errored package 'libgcc1'
mksetupini: package '[packagename]' version '[version]-1bl1' requires nonexistent or errored package 'libreadline7'
...
... and the file setup.ini does not get created!
Then I thought I should symlink as in the above webpage:
$ for ARCH in x86_64 noarch ; do
mkdir -p ${ARCH}/release
cd ${ARCH}/release
ln -s /cygdrive/d/Downloads/cygwin_packages/http%3a%2f%2fcygwin.mirror.constant.com%2f/${ARCH}/release/* .
cd ../..
done
$ mksetupini --arch x86_64 --inifile=x86_64/setup.ini --releasearea=.
mksetupini: no .hint files in ./noarch/release/adwaita-icon-theme but has files: adwaita-icon-theme-3.26.1-1.tar.xz
mksetupini: no .hint files in ./noarch/release/base-cygwin but has files: base-cygwin-3.8-1.tar.xz
mksetupini: no .hint files in ./noarch/release/base-files but has files: base-files-4.3-2.tar.xz
...
mksetupini: package '[packagename]' version '[version]-1bl1' requires nonexistent or errored package 'cygwin'
mksetupini: package '[packagename]' version '[version]-1bl1' requires nonexistent or errored package 'libgcc1'
mksetupini: package '[packagename]' version '[version]-1bl1' requires nonexistent or errored package 'libreadline7'
mksetupini: package '[packagename]' version '[version]-1bl1' depends nonexistent or errored package 'cygwin'
...
... and this does not create setup.ini either.
Finally I found https://github.com/cascent/neovim-cygwin/issues/7 that mentioned the switch --okmissing required-package - so, finally this command:
$ mksetupini --arch x86_64 --inifile=x86_64/setup.ini --releasearea=. --okmissing required-package
... will finally create setup.ini - which will only contain our custom built packages, as they are the only ones that have a .hint file ( I don't have any .hint files in the http%3a%2f%2fcygwin.mirror.constant.com%2f directory, where cygwin usually downloads packages ):
$ cat x86_64/setup.ini
# This file was automatically generated at 2020-03-21 19:42:00 CET.
#
# If you edit it, your edits will be discarded next time the file is
# generated.
#
# See https://sourceware.org/cygwin-apps/setup.ini.html for a description
# of the format.
release: cygwin
arch: x86_64
setup-timestamp: 1584816120
# [packagename]
sdesc: "Blah blah ..."
...
Now, start Cygwin setup.exe, and when the choice screen is: "Cygwin Setup - Choose Installation Type"; here switch from "Install from Internet (...)" to "Install from Local Directory"; on Next > keep Root directory the same; on Next > Select Local Package Directory: I chose D:\Downloads\cygwin_packages\cygwin-custom - on Next > : Select Packages: View Full, then [packagename] is listed there ... and can be installed - and dependencies are resolved, too:
Install [packagename] [version]-1bl1
Install lib[packagename]0 [version]-1bl1 (automatically added)
And finally, after installation, I can call [packagename].exe by name directly in the Cygwin bash shell!
Not too bad of a process, but can get a bit involved if you cannot find the right documentation ...